Franco Colapinto prepares for the GP of Great Britain

The Argentine will face his sixth race with Alpine in F1, after the difficult step of the team through Austria.

Silverstone is a special place for Franco Colapinto. It was the place where he participated for the first time in an official Formula 1 session by turning in the first GP GP trials of 2024 with Williams. His good performance in those 60 minutes on the track was the basal stone for three races later to be anointed as a holder of Logan Sargeant for the rest of the season. A year later, the Argentine will be on the start of the 12th date of the 76th World Cup season with Alpine.

The French team arrives at a delicate time. Its lean results and the lazy track performance of the A525 have the team navigating in the last place of the Cup of Builders, increasingly far from the rest. The great improvement that Sauber star of the penultimate place. Alpine scored only in three of the 11 played races, all by Pierre Gasly and accumulates 11 units; While Sabuer’s Swiss are 26, of which 20 added them in the last three quotes.

Without updates in the chassis in sight (confirmed by Gasly in Austria) the Alpine road in the rest of the season appears as a complex. In Spielberg’s weekend, Flavio Briatorethe strong man of the team, complained because he assured that his two cars were to get into Q3, a comment that generates pressure in Colapinto (he stayed outside in Q2). As if that were not enough, the rumor of a possible landing of Valtteri Bottas in Alpine arose to replace Franco after a meeting that the Italian had with Toto Wolff on Austrian Friday.

With the complicated situation of the team, plus the noise that begins to circulate around it, Colapint will face the GP of Great Britain with more pressure on its shoulders. “The weekend in Austria was a challenge. We advanced a little between the training and the classification; however, the grill is so tight that every detail of the track counts, and we were on the wrong side of the Q2. We had problems with the balance of the car in the race and, after suffering a contact, we lost time and, in the end, we could not overcome the 15th position, ”Collapinto analyzed his passage through Austria in statements published by Alpine. As for the Challenge of England, he said: “I really want to go on track in Silverstone, where I participated for the first time in a Grand Prix last year in free training 1. The circuit is famous in the Formula 1 calendar and I am sure that all pilots wait for him with illusion, for his high speeds and iconic curves. It is a local race for the team, with the factory right next to Estone, so it is a pleasure to spend time there with the team. We focus on one race at a time and continue working together to improve every weekend. ”